Where we stand

EXAMINER EDITORIAL WRITER

Published 4:00 am, Monday, August 24, 1998

HERE is a summary of some of the editorial positions The Examiner has taken in the last two weeks:

On embassy security: Smoke was still rising from the bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania when official calls went out for heightened security at threatened American installations around the world. We hope the actual follow-up - as opposed to reassuring rhetoric - is better than past State Department performance improving the safeguards against terrorist attack.

An unsettling revelation in the wake of the East African explosions that took more than 250 lives was that our ambassador to Kenya, Prudence Bushnell, in December and again in May had asked Washington to provide safer quarters for her embassy. . . . Dollars, talk and embassy security, Aug. 19

President Trump addresses nation after mass shooting at Florida SchoolWhite House

On Clinton's confession: No doubt many Americans hope that President Clinton's mea culpa speech to the country Monday night marked the end of a long, prurient national nightmare. No way. It will prove to be only prologue. . . .

Monday's speech may give the president a temporary public-relations reprieve. Otherwise, things are likely to get darker, and tawdrier, rather than brighter. The endgame is impossible to predict, but the trajectory is set toward trouble - and more sleepless nights for the president. Don't exhale, Aug. 18

On a police shooting: Police Chief Fred Lau has wisely begun a revision of methods to be used by plainclothes officers in confrontations with criminal suspects, focusing on the need for cops to identify themselves clearly.

The decision to lay down new rules is prompted by the tragic outcome of a stakeout May 13, when a San Francisco police bullet killed a 17-year-old girl riding in a car with a drug fugitive and another young man. The driver of the fleeing car reportedly thought the plainclothes cops, trying to serve an arrest warrant, were would-be robbers. . . . Cops shouldn't look like robbers, Aug. 17

On an anti-gay ad: Some people want to squelch viewpoints with which they strongly disagree. As a newspaper, The Examiner defends a very different value. The position we fight for daily is: Let a thousand voices be heard. That's the guiding philosophy behind publication elsewhere in this edition of an advertisement that promotes the idea of homosexual "healing." It is headlined, "We're standing for the truth that homosexuals can change."

As individuals, many of us at the newspaper find the views expressed in this ad abhorrent. The Examiner's editorial position is that the ad - sponsored by a coalition of Christian groups - represents a perversion of Christian ideals. . . . "Healing' & hallucinations, Aug. 16

On Ocean Beach: We're literally drowning in the evidence: Deadly rip currents have claimed seven lives at San Francisco's Ocean Beach this year. But no one is prepared to do anything about it. . . .

Hire lifeguards. Post signs that reflect the real hazards. Educate people that Ocean Beach is dangerous.

Death could be riding on the next wave. Death is a beach, Aug. 14

On Treasure Island: Sometimes the arrogance of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is simply stupendous. Monday was one of those occasions. By an 8-2 margin, the supes blew off the will of city voters. They refused to implement Proposition K, the initiative to change the way Treasure Island is managed. . . . The people be damned, Aug. 12&lt;